Method of and apparatus for measuring viscous and elastic properties of gluten-containing substance

A method of measuring viscous and elastic properties of a gluten-containing substance includes: bringing the gluten-containing substance into a powder, adding a predetermined amount of aqueous liquid to a predetermined amount of the powder, kneading the powder and liquid to a dough to develop the viscoelastic character of the gluten in the dough- and extracting viscoelastic gluten from the dough by rinsing with the liquid. The method further includes: shaping the gluten, placing the shaped gluten between two parallel planar surfaces, compressing the gluten by moving the planar surfaces towards each other at a controlled rate, until a maximum compression force or a minimum spacing is reached, releasing the force on the planar surfaces so that these can move away from each other due to elastic recovery of the compressed gluten, measuring the distance between the planar surfaces during the compression and elastic recovery of the gluten, and storing the measured values.